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“Wow! It’s what I always wanted….” is the standard response when you receive presents from your friends and family. But was it really? Whether you received the latest gadget, perfume or socks – some of our visitors dream of receiving jetpack boots, a time machine and a walking toilet.

Below is a selection of inventions that our visitors came up with when in the Launchpad gallery. Click on any image for larger pictures.

Enjoy Christmas all year round with a Christmas tent

Present wrapping machine

Jetpack boots

Time machine

Relive parts of your life with the Universal Remote

Can’t cook? The Dinner-Tron 3000 is the thing for you!

The teleporting door

Rocket couch

A love machine

The drink that REALLY gives you wings

Desperately looking for a loo? The solution? A walking toilet

Rocket skates

Explainer Fact:The Museum is only closed 3 days a year – 24th-26th December

As Inventor in Residence, I was given the task of coming up with some inventions that we might see in the future at Christmas time.

A good starting point was to think about all the problems and minor annoyances about Christmas, then to try to think of solutions. It turns out there are plenty of Christmas gripes, from pine needles dropping all over the carpet, to eating Brussel sprouts and wrapping countless presents!

On the first weekend of December, I bought and installed a Christmas tree in my living room. I have been making a range of products for the Science Museum called “Beauty in the Making” that describe how and where products have been manufactured, before they make it into our homes.

Beauty in the Making: Telling the story of how materials are manufactured

I started to wonder about where all the other things around me had come from including my new Christmas tree. Where had the tree been growing before it had been chopped down? Could it ever be replaced? I then struck upon the idea of the Bio-Bauble – a biodegradable transparent bauble containing a seedling Christmas tree, complete with soil and fertiliser that could be planted to grow a new Christmas tree.

The next problem I thought about solving was wrapping up presents. My solution came when I was thinking about a more robust alternative to wrapping paper that could be reused. Initially, I wondered whether Christmas wrapping cloth might catch on. Then I remembered using some vacuum pack bags to store away a duvet. It occurred to me that if these were produced in opaque with Christmas patterns, they would make a great way of wrapping things quickly and could be reused again. The result was Vac-Pac-Wrapping. I’ve tested the idea and it works really well!

Vac-Pac-Wrapping: The future of Christmas Wrapping?

Another invention idea was inspired by the feeling of excitement I used to feel as a child as the presents began to build up underneath the Christmas tree. Before opening them, my brothers and I would subject our presents to some rigorous scientific tests to figure out what was inside. Heaviness was usually a good sign!

Guess the Gift kit: Tools to investigate what a present might be

So I came up with the Guess the Gift kit. It comprises a range of tools that can be used to interrogate what a present might be, and after Christmas can be used to explore other mysteries! These include a magnet, a set of scales, a torch, a magnifying glass and dental mirror.

It’s hard to predict whether these inventions will catch on in the future, but I’m already thinking about the inventions next year might bring.